JOAQUIN Phoenix is bristling at Eva Mendes‘ wisecrack that doing “We Own the Night” with him was “kind of like working with a puppy dog or a 2-year-old.” Phoenix rants to the December Playboy: “Had I known I was supposed to be a puppy dog, I would have been much more cute and more consistently attentive. My apologies, Eva, but I had a few other scenes that you weren’t in. This puppy dog had a lot of work to do.”